BY MARION RENAULT

For University of Minnesota students living off campus, recycling is about to get easier with the implementation of the first phase of the city’s One-Sort Recycling Program beginning Nov. 12.

With single-sort recycling, newspapers, cardboard, plastic containers, cans, aluminum cans and glass can all be put into new 95-gallon blue recycling carts, which will be provided at no extra charge to citizens.

The first phase will roll out 30,000 blue recycling carts to neighborhoods, and will no longer require residents to sort their materials before recycling. Prospect Park East River Road and Marcy-Holmes will be serviced beginning the week of Nov. 26. The Como neighborhood can expect their one-sort carts in the second phase of the project in April or May of next year.

“By making it easier to recycle, we expect to collect more recycling and less trash from folks who don’t recycle yet or who don’t recycle as much as they could,” Mayor R.T. Rybak told WCCO. “Our crews are picking up and recycling about 18,000 tons of materials every year, and we want to double that by 2015.”

According to the city of Minneapolis, this change will be both easier for residents and more efficient for the city. The new system will maintain the quality and value of recycled materials as well as is expected to significantly increase the amount of recycled materials.

The single-sort system is projected to increase the amount of materials recovered by 60 percent and increase the Minneapolis recycling rate by 13.9 percent — all at a net cost 40 percent lower than the current program, according to the city’s Recycling Collection Study Executive Summary.

Residents will receive a mailing one week before their cart arrives, along with instructions for use. Until then, the city asks residents to continue sorting their recyclables as usual.

The first day of one sort recycling pick up will be Nov. 26 of this year, and afterward most customers’ day of service will not change.

The change is a response to new goals to encourage more customers to recycle and research that shows single-sort recycling is safer and more efficient than multiple-sort recycling.

To check what phase your neighborhood will be in check out here.